One Valentine’s Day we grew weary of the same old “Be Mine Forever” cards, the same old chocolate and the same old girls. Our town was fairly small. Me and Ricky, Yogi, Don and Buddy had been swapping cards with Jane, LaRenda, Graylene, Pam and Ruth Ann since the first grade. Miss Carolyn demanded it. Miss Dorothy, the next year, quoted her verbatim. And then Miss Belle and Miss Dinwiddie...well, you can see our problem.

Kids do gross stuff. That’s just the way it is. I believe, in fact, it’s a part of the kid creed they’re handed at birth.

My 3-year-old niece, Amanda, is no exception. I got an e-mail from my brother (her dad) last week that proved that although my niece is a prissy, pink-loving, lip-gloss-snitching girlie-girl, she also has a gross side.

Every time I hear something on the news about a missing and exploited child, even before they say where it happened, my mind immediately clicks that it happened in our state.

It seems that, for whatever reason, children in Florida ages 3 to 13 are not safe, especially little girls. There was a time when you could lock your door and go to bed. You felt safe, knowing that when you got up your kids would still be there. But I guess that's a thing of the past.

I ran into Times Sports Editor Joe Ferolito at an eatery in Bristol. He was over there helping someone out, which seemed perfectly natural to me. Joe has been in the helping-someone-out business as long as I have known him.

It’s finally happened. The glow in which our new president had basked has faded.

One month after President Barack Obama took his oath of office, 60 percent of Americans approve of the job he’s doing, down from 65 percent three weeks ago. The percentage of people who disapprove has increased to 26 percent, up from 16 percent.

Some would argue that this is due to grumblings among Republicans. But numbers show that in mid-January, the majority of Republicans had a favorable opinion of Obama.

As of last Friday President Barack Obama has been in office one month. But from some of the comments I have heard on television and radio, and from individuals, you would think the man had been in office for four or five years.

It started the day he was sworn into office. Immediately, some of the people over at Fox News were counting the minutes. It was almost as if they were saying,"Well, he's been in office for 30 minutes. Now let's see what he can do."

The next day, it was, "He's been in office for a whole day and what has he done? Nothing."

Cathy wants to go on a vacation. I told her, “We live in Florida!” I don’t see how we can improve on that! I invited her to sit out on the back steps and enjoy the sun slowly sinking into the Gulf. I volunteered to take her out to Indian Pass and watch the tide roll in. We could stop by Jim McNeil’s store and have a romantic fried scallop sandwich on the way home. I offered to rent a canoe…

OK...I’m just going to say it, despite the fact that it will make me seem like such an old fogey.

I am sick of loud, thumping, booming music coming from cars. I hate hearing it when I am working. I hate hearing it at home. I hate hearing it at a stoplight. I hate hearing it alone – OK...it doesn’t matter whether I’m alone, I just wanted to pay tribute to Dr. Seuss.

But the point is, I can’t stand when someone forces me to listen to their music. And that’s exactly what those rude people do. And they are rude...very rude.

I can't dance. I've tried, but there is something wrong with the side of my brain that controls dancing.

When line dancing became popular a few years back, I thought I was saved. This, I thought, is something I can do, since you’re in a line with a bunch of other people and all of you are doing the same thing. I did pretty good, too. For the most part, I kept up and didn't throw too many people off.